How To Flush a Toilet

The first time I traveled to Africa in 1975, it was an eye-opening experience for me. Because this was my first time outside the USA, I was confronted with many new realities, and many familiar realities viewed in a new light. There were about 16 of us traveling together in a group. We had spent several weeks in Germany, a few days in Rome, and finally ended up for a couple of weeks in Tanzania, East Africa.

When asked to summarize my experience on our return to the States, I said: "There are many ways to flush a toilet." What I meant was that throughout our travels, I had discovered that in each country, in each culture, there were differing ways of doing things. Each country had developed certain systems for dealing with human problems, issues, needs and struggles. Some of them may have worked more successfully than others. Some may have been more complicated than others. Some may have been more expensive than others. But in the end, they all seemed to serve the needs of the particular people involved. No one way was better or worse than any other.

That was a life-changing experience for me because it helped me to let go of a certain judgmental outlook on life and people. Who was I to decide that life had to be a certain way? Who was I to judge how others dealt with the issues of daily life? Who was I to say that the way we do things in the USA is the best or only way to live life?

In the ensuing years, I believe that that attitude of letting others be has broadened. I find myself more willing to let others be themselves rather than what I think that they should be. I don't find the need (as much) to shape them into my idea of who or how they should live. And what a freeing development that has been. Since I have resigned as Master of the Universe, my stress level has decreased significantly, and my level of peace and joy has risen out of sight. When I let God be God, and let others be themselves, then I can be myself, and be at peace with that.